Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2020
published in Criminal Legal News
October, 2020, page 8
We at the Human Rights Defense Center are saddened to announce the passing of our dear friend Kent Alan Russell on August 9, 2020. Many readers know him as the author of the California Habeas Handbook and California’s leading expert on habeas corpus. In addition, he provided invaluable assistance to ...
by Dale Chappell
The Court of Appeal of California, Third Appellate District, granted habeas relief on April 3, 2020, in a case where appellate counsel failed to request a jury instruction that could have led to a lesser included conviction, requiring the vacatur of a murder conviction.
Jonathan Hampton filed ...
by Dale Chappell
The art of withdrawing a guilty plea comes down to which phase of the criminal proceeding the guilty plea is at when the motion to withdraw is filed. The phases are: (1) prior to it being accepted by the court, (2) after acceptance but before sentencing, and ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that a prisoner immediately released under the First Step Act of 2018 could not “bank” the extra time spent in prison toward a future prison sentence imposed in the event of a supervised release revocation.
While the ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of New Hampshire held that N.H.R. Crim. P. 14(b)(2)(A) does not allow trial courts to require that defendants identify evidentiary support for a noticed defense.
Michael Munroe was a prisoner at the Rockingham County House of Corrections when he became involved in a fight ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed the judgment of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio that granted summary judgment to the City of Euclid (“City”) and to Officers Kyle Flagg and Vashon Williams in an action brought under 42 ...
by Dale Chappell
When a prisoner uses his one good shot at habeas corpus relief in federal court, it can be disheartening when the law that foreclosed relief changes after the case has been closed.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has clarified when Federal Rule of ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Nebraska announced that the appropriate remedy after vacatur of an enhanced sentence for vehicular homicide that was imposed in the absence of evidence of any qualifying prior convictions is to remand to the district court for another enhancement and sentencing hearing.
After leaving ...
by David M. Reutter
"Plea bargaining happens in almost every criminal case, yet there is little empirical study about what actually happens when prosecutors and defense lawyers negotiate,” begins a new study in the Cardozo Law Review. That study, “The Shadow Bargainers,” used the responses of 579 attorneys to ...
by Anthony Accurso
The Supreme Court of the State of Colorado reversed its earlier precedent and announced a new set of rules for determining when a defendant should be granted presentence confinement credit (“PSCC”).
Derick Wayne Russell was in community confinement following unrelated convictions in Jefferson County and Douglas County, ...
by Casey Bastian
Most Americans are not aware that Vigilant Solutions has a product called “Law Enforcement Archival Reporting.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) knows about it and reportedly uses its database to conduct warrantless surveillance. CBP admitted that it uses the database in CBP’s updated Privacy Impact Assessment ...
by Dale Chappell
The Supreme Court of California, on July 20, 2020, established a new time limit for filing subsequent habeas corpus petitions in state courts that clarifies when a state petition is “pending” to toll the harsh one-year clock for filing a habeas petition in federal court.
Almost nine ...
by Casey Bastian
Protests against excessive force by police continue across the country. Demonstrations escalated after George Floyd was killed on a Minneapolis street in May. Portland, Oregon, received significant attention when violent acts began overshadowing the mostly peaceful protests. In response to attempts by protesters to vandalize a federal ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit publishes more orders denying “second or successive” habeas corpus petitions (“SOS applications”) than any other Circuit, and it then uses those published cases against every litigant who comes before the court, even those on direct appeal. The practice ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of South Carolina held that a trial court’s failure to charge the jury with the circumstantial evidence instruction from State v. Logan, 747 S.E.2d 444 (S.C. 2013), was not harmless error where the State’s evidence was almost entirely circumstantial.
Robin Herndon was a law ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin abused its discretion when it denied Vincent Corner’s motion seeking relief under § 404 of the First Step Act (“the Act”) without first determining whether the ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Colorado held that a trial court erred when it permitted the prosecutor to argue that the defendant’s failure to retreat showed she was not afraid, and this lack of fear of the imminent use of unlawful force against her undermined her claim of ...
by Dale Chappell
The Supreme Court of California vacated a life without parole (“LWOP”) sentence imposed in a first-degree murder conviction, applying its recent decisions clarifying a “special circumstance” to allow such a sentence and instructing that those decisions apply retroactively for habeas corpus relief.
A decade ago, a jury ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Arizona announced a cumulative error framework for when an appellant claims he was denied a fair trial due to the cumulative effect of multiple instances of prosecutorial misconduct.
A jury found Luis Armando Vargas guilty of several offenses, including first-degree murder. On appeal, ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of Indiana reaffirmed the standard set forth in Mayes v. State, 744 N.E.2d 390 (Ind. 2001), that held a statute barring a claim of self-defense if the defendant had committed a crime requires a showing that “there must be an immediate and causal ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled on July 22, 2020, that when a “covered offense” under the First Step Act is reduced, a non-covered offense may also be reduced to achieve the purposes of sentencing, reiterating that any covered offense allows a court ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that law enforcement officers violated the Fourth Amendment in executing an administrative warrant at a private residence where their “primary purpose” was to gather evidence in support of a criminal investigation.
In October 2017, the City of ...
by Casey Bastian
Once again, a video of an interaction between a police officer and a citizen has gone viral. Thankfully, the citizen survived this encounter. Alexis Wilkins, a 20-year-old diabetic, was returning from a George Floyd protest in Cincinnati when the car she was in was stopped. Wilkins was ...
by Dale Chappell
For the first time since 1862, the U.S. Supreme Court has decided a record low number of regular-docket cases – just 52. But that doesn’t mean the highest court in the land wasn’t busy. In fact, it was busier than ever, handing down decisions under the cover ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit granted permission for a state prisoner to file a second or successive (“SOS”) habeas corpus petition in the federal court to attack a three-decade-old murder conviction based on newly discovered evidence.
On August 23, 1985, a mother of ...
by Anthony Accurso
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle ruled that the FBI conducted an illegal search of a defendant’s phone by powering it on to inspect the lock screen, resulting in suppression of information obtained from the search.
Joseph Sam was arrested pursuant ...
by Douglas Ankney
The Supreme Court of North Carolina held that Melvin Lamar Fields could not be convicted of both habitual misdemeanor assault and felony assault for the same act.
In November 2015, Fields and A.R. — a transgender woman — engaged in consensual sex. Afterward, while they were bathing, ...
by Matt Clarke
The Supreme Court of Michigan ruled that a probation officer who found heroin during a compliance check after the probation had ended and then been unlawfully extended conducted an unauthorized warrantless search.
John D. Vandenpool was sentenced to two years of probation on June 24, 2013. On ...
by Douglas Ankney
Sudden unexplained death in childhood (“SUDC”) ranks fifth in the categories of death in children ages one to four, and every year, it affects approximately 400 children ages one to 18.
Unlike Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (“SIDS”), SUDC is the listed cause of death when a child ...
by Ed Lyon
Since the May 25, 2020, killing of George Floyd by police, a movement to defund police departments across the U.S. has been gaining momentum. Defunding is not always the answer to law enforcement agencies that have traditionally been tasked in jack-of-all-trades roles of mediator, mental health crisis ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit reversed Fernando Miguel Samora’s conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm because the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah gave the jury an erroneous instruction on constructive possession.
In May 2017, Samora borrowed ...
by Douglas Ankney
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that a district court’s failure to offer an explanation for its sentence was plain error in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 3553(c).
Gilberto Rosa pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud (Count One) and aggravated identity ...
by Jayson Hawkins
The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way we live and conduct our business, yet some of those changes were long past due. Many relate to safety, others to convenience, and a few —namely with the U.S. Supreme Court — have brought transparency.
For the first time in ...
by David M. Reutter
The Maryland Court of Appeals ruled that in giving advice of rights police officers must use methods that reasonably convey the warnings and rights contained in Maryland’s implied consent statute. The Court’s ruling discusses whether reading a form in English to a driver with limited English ...
by David M. Reutter
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that a defendant was entitled to withdraw his guilty plea because he had a plausible defense in light of Rehaif v. United States, 139 S. Ct. 2191 (2019).
Robert Triggs was indicted in May 2016 ...
by Jayson Hawkins
In 2015, the decades-long battle waged by social justice activists in Chicago culminated in the passage of a reparations bill for victims of torture at the hands of the Chicago police. Five years after this historic victory, both victims and advocates are taking stock of what has ...
by Dale Chappell
The Supreme Court of New Jersey reaffirmed its rule that when a juror is excused after the jury has reached a verdict on some of the counts, but not others, the proper course of action is to enter a verdict on those counts and to declare a ...
by Kevin Bliss
Recent incidents of police shootings of unarmed civilians such as Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri; Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio; and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, have sparked an interest into the psychology of the police and the effects of stereotyping. Studies have shown the relationship between ...
by Dale Chappell
Imagine trying to get a job, health care, housing, or any other basic need without an ID, with every government office you need in order to get one closed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Those released from prison during these trying times report they are finding themselves ...
by Dale Chappell
Colorado became the first state to pass a law prohibiting law enforcement officers from invoking qualified immunity as a defense when they’re accused in a lawsuit of violating a citizen’s civil rights. Hopefully, the law passed in June will start a trend in other states and lend ...
by Anthony Accurso
A June 24, 2020, article in The New York Times by Kashmir Hill recounts the wrongful imprisonment of a Detroit man due to misuse of facial-recognition software.
In January 2020, Robert Julian-Borchak Williams was working at an automotive supply company when he received what he thought was ...
by Anthony Accurso
Minnesota officials have used a variety of digital surveillance tools to track protestors, but now they openly admit to using contact-tracing apps to do so.
According to Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington, officials in the state have been using contact-tracing to map protestor affiliations and movements. ...
by Ed Lyon
Traditionally, police have been the ones to call when a common citizen has been assaulted, robbed, had his home burgled, or a car stolen. They were called noble, even honorable names like Blue Knights or New Centurions with the motto “To Protect and Serve” on their four-wheeled ...
by Kevin Bliss
Critics contend that the new bail reform risk assessment (“RA”) tools are corrupted in use and perpetuate the same racial and monetary biases that brought the practice of bail assignment into question to begin with.
Most states view Kentucky as the best example of utilization of RA ...
by Kevin Bliss
George Floyd’s death has led to intense scrutiny of the Minneapolis Police Department, including a State Department of Human Rights investigation launched June 2 to determine if the police have engaged in discriminatory practices. Statistics show their use of force against Blacks (about 20 percent of the ...
by Kevin Bliss
Critics say the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”) is responding to protestors of George Floyd’s May 25, 2020, death with increased violence and no fear of repercussion. Accusations have been made of beatings, pepper spraying, and threatening protestors with guns. Civilians complain that police illegally cover ...
by Anthony Accurso
Researchers have developed a new system that could be used to ensure that the evidence processed in a laboratory is the same evidence that was collected in the field (e.g., from a crime scene).
Engineers from Duke University and NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering have demonstrated a ...
by Jayson Hawkins
The due process clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides that “no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” The intent of the amendment was to restrain government actors from arbitrary or capricious acts of violence, imprisonment, ...
by Kevin Bliss
The Guardian investigated two decades’ worth of campaign financial records in New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago and found that police and police unions at the state and local levels have donated at least $87 million to politicians who work to block law enforcement reform.
Federal ...
Loaded on
Sept. 15, 2020
published in Criminal Legal News
October, 2020, page 50
California: Marissa Cruz and Paea Tukuafu filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city of San Jose police in August 2020, claiming they were “battered and bruised” by cops and subject to unreasonable search and entry. The two were celebrating ahead of Cruz’s 22nd birthday at a Holiday Inn in ...
by Douglas Ankney
As of the date of this article, protests continue against police brutality and systemic racism in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. While racism and police brutality are at least as old as America itself, Floyd’s death appears to be a catalyst that brought formerly ...
